From: Cancer Omega (comega[at]attrition.org)
To: "John Berryhill Ph.D. J.D." (john@johnberryhill.com)
Cc: staff[at]attrition.org, legal[at]attrition.org
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 13:25:27 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Re: Polite Request

On Sat, 16 Sep 2000, John Berryhill Ph.D. J.D. wrote: 

: Okay, here's the deal.
: 
: I understand your project and I read your disclaimer.
: 
: Unfortunately, you are not similarly positioned to an ISP, and I am quite
: familiar with the law in this area.

You already demonstrate your gross ignorance in the law with your
inference that ISPs have "common carrier" status.

: I am asking you politely to take down the following material:
: 
: http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/2000/01/21/www.mms.gov/

Thank you for your request.

No.

Our policy says why.  If you think we're going to make an exception here,
you are in error.

: If the material is not taken down by November 30, 2000, then I am
: walking from my office to the US District Court for the Eastern District
: of Pennsylvania, and I am filing a complaint against you for defamation. 
: You will be welcome to come to Philadelphia and to discuss the cases you
: cite on your disclaimer page in that court. 

We did not write it, so we cannot be sued for it.  We simply retained a
copy of it.  That you result to bullying before even waiting for our
intial reply shows that you are an annoying, self-important little man.

If you feel you must file some sort of suit, the you must do what you feel
is right.  However, I should point out that you *must* list the Minerals
Management Service (mms.gov) as a co-defendant as they were the original
"publishers" of said data.  Feel up to pushing around the government, too? 
If not, you'd better be.  After all, were the initial "publishers." 
Additionally, while it can be argued that they were "unwilling
participants," it can further be argued that attrition is an "unwilling
participant" since our mirror project archives defaced websites,
regardless of their content. 

: An ISP is a carrier of information and does not have editorial control
: over the information.  You do.  I am a practicing attorney, and it is
: not my job to give you a legal education.  In whatever source you are
: learning about defamation law, look in the index under "republication",
: and that might be of interest to you. 

ISPs will only be considered as "common carriers" when they're under the
domain of the Federal Communications Commission.  Hint: they're not.
You're only showing your sheer ignorance by banking on our being equally
ignorant.

Look, it's not my job to teach you some manners and common sense, but it's
fairly obvious that your mother didn't. 

.c